In 2009 Lal Krishna Advani was the prime ministerial candidate of BJP. After that his leadership declined gradually and at the meeting of national executive of BJP in Bombay it reached the bottom when B. S. Yediyurappa said Narendra Modi is the tallest leader in BJP.
Advani did not stand up for people who stood by him. During Jinnah controversy Jaswant Singh had supported Advani. When Jaswant Singh faced expulsion for his book on Jinnah, Advani did not oppose expulsion. BJP members understood it was foolish to support Advani, he would not support them in their difficult time. Nobody from BJP who wanted to expel Jaswant Singh had read the book. There were reports that some passages in the book were against Vallabhbhai Patel. Narendra Modi wanted Jaswant Singh expelled and he had its way. History was to repeat itself in Bombay and Narendra Modi secured Sanjay Joshi’s resignation.
RSS leaders talked of young leadership of BJP. Manohar Parrikar referred to Advani as rancid pickle. Opinion polls favoured Narendra Modi over Advani. In the tussle in Karnataka BJP, Advani sided with Anantha Kumar and angered B. S. Yediyurappa. B. S. Yediyurappa hit back by endorsing Narendra Modi.
Advani’s criticism of Nitin Gadkari in his blog came late. If Advani wants to become prime minister he has to keep all options open and that means splitting BJP. Leaders split parties to come to power, to remain in power, to consolidate power.